WIST Quotations

Douglass, Frederick -- Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York

Dave — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 22:42:54 +0000

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York
(Source)

Douglass, Frederick -- Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York

Dave — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:03:20 +0000

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York
(Source)

Douglass, Frederick -- Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York

Dave — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 12:48:29 +0000

The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation’s history — the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York
(Source)

Dunne, Finley Peter -- “Freedom and the Fourth of July” (1897)

Dave — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 12:54:17 +0000

“It looks to me,” he went on in a melancholy tone, “as if they was too much noise an’ smoke about pathritism in America f’r the good ib th’ country.”

Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American humorist and journalist
“Freedom and the Fourth of July” (1897)
(Source)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Memorial Day address, Keene, New Hampshire (30 May 1884)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:42:24 +0000

It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Memorial Day address, Keene, New Hampshire (30 May 1884)
(Source)

Speaking of what the Independence Day (Fourth of July) has become in the US, separated by time from the initial cause it celebrated.

See Harding and Kennedy.

Adams, John -- Letter (1776-07-03, p.m.) to Abigail Adams

Dave — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:36:48 +0000

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. — I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1776-07-03, p.m.) to Abigail Adams
(Source)

The rough draft read "... solemnized with Pomp, Shews, Games ..." It also did not have the final word "more."

Early printings of this letter (and that of the morning) changed the recipient to an unnamed male friend. They were used by some (given the date on them and references elsewhere in them) to argue that Independence Day should be celebrated on July 2nd; others published versions with the dates modified to align with a July 4th date for the holiday. What Adams actually wrote was not clarified until Charles Francis Adams (grandson of John and Abigail) published a record of his grandparents' correspondence in 1876.

For the record, Independence was voted on and approved by the Continental Congress on 1776-07-02, and the final text of the Declaration of Independence approved and signed on 1776-07-04. Adams was writing on the day in-between.